Vietnamese Chicken with Lemongrass
Serves 4.
Ingredients
1 small roasting chicken
4 stems lemon grass
3 spring onions (scallions)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
2 fresh red chilies, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
Directions
Cut chicken into pieces, Chinese style, chopping through the bones. Remove outer layers of lemon grass, and cut the tender, white portion at the base of the stalks into fine slices. Pound using a mortar and pestle to bruise. Slice spring onions, including green leaves. Mix chicken with salt, pepper, lemon grass and spring onions, cover and leave for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in wok and stir-fry the chicken for a few minutes. Add chillies and stir-fry on medium heat about 10 minutes or until chicken is well cooked. Add sugar and fish sauce, mix well, sprinkle with roasted peanuts and serve with rice.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)